Message from home
#7 of Awakening of One
Ok first off these stories are my intellectual property, do not copy them or the constrictor's within without my express permission. I have been without internet for a few months now and have not had time to write. I have picked up the pen again so please leave comments and feedback. I have not written in some time and comments will let me know if I should continue writing this story or not.
"You know how?" everyone said at the same moment.
"Yes, I can open the gateway and tell you how to continue from there." Nib'Var said, looking directly at Kaid.
As Nib'Var finished a voice came from the entrance to the clearing. "No you will not. We have no idea what that would do to the balance between the worlds."
Everyone turned to see three cat like people standing to one side of the clearing.
The speaker was a large panther. He was covered in jet black fur seeming to almost be a walking shadow. He was a good foot taller then I, the tallest of the newcomers. The only flaw in his appearance was a V shaped notch in his right ear. His posture made it obvious that he was the leader.
"Juni say out of this!" Cyin demanded then quickly continued, "How did you get here, and how did you find this place?"
Jake and I looked between the panther and Cyin in obvious confusion. Before either one could voice the question on there minds the panther began talking again.
"The counsel gave me permission to come and find you, and this place was easy to find, your energy signature is all over this clearing, yours and HIS." He hissed the last word nodding in my direction.
"Juni don't start, I already know the counsels opinion and I chose to ignore it. I AM still free to chose you know." Cyin shouted.
"Listen little one, I am just here to take you home where you belong, you need to stop this crusade before you do real damage." The panther said in a too sweet and soothing tone. I was growing real tired of this guy. It was obvious that Cyin knew him, and there was obviously more between them then was being said.
Before the panther could start to speak again I cut in. "Hi, I'm Kaid Kintell, nice to meet you." I said nodding to the three newcomers. "Now WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT?" I finished making sure the tone of my voice told them I was not pleased with being ignored.
The panthers attitude changed instantly, the fur on his neck started to stand, and he got a growling to his voice. "Quiet child, you are lucky we are not here to quiet your abilities, and even more lucky that I do not kill you for taking my mate." I quickly turned to look at Cyin but she was not paying attention to me, instead she had a death stare locked onto the panther.
"I am not your anything Joni, no matter what my father promised you! I will decide what I want, and I am staying here with Kaid. Now go back to the counsel and tell them if they want to help then we accept, otherwise stay out of our way!"
Her voice was stern but deathly quiet. Her words carried like a knife thrown dead on into a bulls eye. The panthers expression changed first to shock then anger. His friends were not far behind, and I had the feeling that he was not going to settle with simply telling him to go away.
"Cyin you go to far, I have been told if you do not want to come we can take you back." The threat was obvious.
I knew I had to do something, so I started to put a web around the clearing, I did not think they would notice it until it sprung. It was very passive, it watched for anyone but those who were keyed into it to use magic. Then it would quickly catch there energy, triple its effect and send it back to its source. Of coarse I only keyed myself and Cyin into the web. Then I started to gather energy in anticipation of an attack.
"Cyin I will tell you one more time.." I am sure he had more to say but I was not going to let this shouting match continue any further.
"She is not the one you should be talking to. If you want Cyin you will have to go through me." I paused a moment for effect. "Please just leave now and tell your counsel that we welcome there help, but otherwise to stay out of MY affairs."
I knew I was pushing him too far, but I was also leaving them the option of backing down. I barely saw what happened next. He practically jumped across the clearing at me. He was fast, scary fast, but I was also fast. I had been training with Cyin for some time, and I found that with a little effort I could speed up my reaction times. His claws grazed me several times, but he never scored a good hit. I however got two good kicks into his gut winding him. As he backed up I saw him smile as he whispered "Not bad for a child." I watches as his entire demeanor changed, he got very clam, and his eyes took on a far away quality. "I will not waste any more time playing with you!" He shouted.
I could feel him drawing power, just as I expected he was trying to end the fight quickly by using magic on me. The air around him started to sizzle and spark, he knew what he was doing, the flow of energy around him was huge. He put his arms up, palms pointing in my direction. I could feel him creating something just in front of his hands. He let out a low growl as he finished preparing his attack. Just as he let the attack leave him it turned back on him. His face twisted into a look of shock and pain. A storm of wind quickly picked up around him. I watched as wind, rock, and silver energy picked up the panther, pelted him around and threw him across the clearing towards his over confident looking friends. All sound in the clearing seemed to stop. The two cats stood looking at there fallen leader. Then everyone looked at me.
Juni slowly stood up, he was obviously bleeding from a large gash in one leg, and his left arm was hanging limp at his side. But he got to his feet without help and started to walk towards me.
"Look, I do not want to hurt any of you. What just happened you did to yourself. Please do not make me finish what you started." I said, I made sure to be as sincere and non sarcastic as I could. I really did not want to go any further with this fight. Juni stopped where he was. "How did you do that?" he asked obviously angry, confused, and a bit frightened.
From the tone in the panthers voice and the obvious nervisness of his two companions I knew I had control of the situation... for now. I just had to use it before things got out of hand again.
"I just put up a web to catch any hostile energy, amplify it, and send it back at its source." The panther and his two companions started looking around nervously.
"I can not feel anything, how..." he trailed off, I could tell that he was growing more agitated by the minuet.
"It is passive, it will only become active if you do something. I tuned the energy pattern of the web to the natural pattern of this clearing to mask its presence." I could feel everyone starring at me in disbelief. "Watch.." was all I said as I pushed a quick pulse of blue energy thought the web. Strands of blue lit up the whole clearing. Then quickly went dark.
Cyin was the first to speak "Kaid, where did you learn to do that?" She said it as if she was afraid of the answer.
"It just came to me, I knew I could cover myself if he attacked, but I had to protect you and Jake in case he or his companions chose to come after you while I was busy."
"I told you he is Al'Isnar." Nib'Var announced in a matter of fact sort of way.
"But you used energy, you had to. You moved to fast for a human." Juni said looking even more confused but a bit less agitated.
"Yes I did, and so can Cyin. I embedded our energy patterns into the web so any energy we use will not trigger a backlash. Of course that makes us the only two people in this clearing who can safely work with energy until I remove the web." I said the last part as both a warning and a threat. I could tell this had a devastating effect on everyone.
Nib'Var just stood watching all of us with a smug look. "I told you he is Al'Isnar, you can not deny that now. So are we done paying mating games. I would like to keep my word so I can return home."
There was a long pause, finally Juni turned to look at Nib'Var "Who are you?" he asked.
"You may call me Nib'Var, I care for this forest." Nib'Var responded.
"So you are a forest guardian?"
"There are some who have called me that." Nib'Var responded in a light whimsical tone.
Juni was obviously still in a lot of pain, but the need to fight seemed to have drained out of him.
Turning from Nib'Var to me, Juni's face turned to a cold, deadly mask. "You win human, but know that if you ever cause her harm I will rip out your spine, Al'Isnar or not." The last few words were almost a hiss.
"Juni this was not... He didn't mean... You are injured, please stop this and leave us, tell my father I miss him and not to worry everything will be fine." As Cyin finished she moved to my side and took my hand. For a brief moment Juni looked as if he might still have some fight left, but just as quickly as the look came it faded, to be replaced by a sad smile.
"Kaid if we meet again I hope it is not as enemies, I would hate to kill you." This was a most unexpected change, it took almost a full minute for anyone to speak.
Kaid, a small grin on his face, broke the silence. "I agree, I would hate to die,"
Everyone stood quietly waiting as Juni and his two companions made there way out of the clearing. As they disappeared around a turn in the path Jake spoke up, "What was that all about? I thought for sure he was going to kill us." Cyin let out a long breath, "He was sent here by my father, he would have killed you all to take me back." She paused look straight at Kaid "Why did you challenge him? He could have killed you."
Kaid stood for a moment looking at Cyin. "What do you mean, I didn't 'challenge' him, Its just that I was not going to let someone walk in here and start giving orders." Cyin stood looking shocked.
"Kaid when you told him that he would have to go through you to get to me... you... Kaid he thought you were challenging him for the right to be my mate." She said the last part a bit more quietly, almost as if she were embarrassed to be explaining it.
"So your saying that he now thinks we are mates?"
"Yes Kaid I am."
"And this is a bad thing?"
"Kaid my father..."
"Fuck your father, Cyin I want you, I need you... I..."
"Kaid you don't know what you are saying."
"Yes I do, we have already been together doesn't that make
us mates?"
"Not exactly, Kaid we have mated, but to be mates means we are mates for life." There was an uneasiness in Cyin's voice as she said this.
"Are you saying you do not want that?" I asked feeling my heart drop into my stomach. It took a moment for Cyin to respond. At first the look on here face was unreadable, then she stared to cry as a big smile crossed her lips. "Kaid... Of course I do, I just didn't think you would." She said as she jumped on me, putting her arms around my neck.
"What? Why would you think that, you know I love you." I asked a bit shocked.
"I know... but you humans are strange, you do not always accept such things. Also we are still young, my people rarely choose a life mate until we are at least 40 cycles old." She explained.
"So exactly how old do you people get?" I asked "We live to be around 160 cycles."
"Well... Humans are not so lucky; we get maybe 90 years sometimes less." Cyin smiled at this "I knew that! It is just hard getting used to the differences." I hugged her tight and whispered "Well we have the rest of our lives to get used to those differences." She held tighter to me as she started to quietly laugh and cry at the same time.
"Hey Kaid, the strange plant guy is doing something you should... well look," Jake said pointing to the far side of the clearing.